Avoid Former Co-Workers

43 – 43. Distrust and Hatred (6)

Among the roads leading to the dormitory, the dark and muddy road that academy students most want to avoid.

Even at the academy located in the capital, this place is closer to the name Oji, worse than a garbage dump.

I’m Junon, I’m used to avoiding people’s eyes, so I’m just going around here.

Then here’s the problem.

How can a lotus flower like this bloom on a trail where you can go your own way, avoiding people’s eyes and passing over the voices of others?

A lotus is an aquatic plant that blooms in lakes and ponds.

It is said that it can be found in rice fields and swamps, but what they have in common is moisture.

The place he is walking is nothing but a crumbly ground that has not been paved or maintained under the blazing sunlight.

At best, if I had to find a place with water, it was a fountain that I passed by a long time ago.

Can’t a plant called lotus bloom here? Nevertheless, the fact that this lotus flower is visible proves that there is only one thing.

“f*ck…!”

It must have been someone’s magic.

Paang!!

There was a roar, and dry, sun-burnt sand rippled and covered his black hair.

Through the black smoke, pink hair as fresh as a lotus flower swayed in front of his eyes.

‘Aris…!’

Embracing a wave of hatred that burned even more than the sand that had just hit him.

***

Aris was convinced.

When Junon took the dark and eerie road where no one walked, the moment he saw the lotus flower, everything would end.

However, he coped well with my magic.

‘With that insignificant magic shield.’

-Patter.

A rain of sand falls from the yellow cloud that rises above him with an explosion that makes his eardrums ache.

“Notice that.”

After taking a shower in the sand rain, Junon’s body was fine.

Looking at Junon like that, Aris, who was laughing, noticed something.

“You seem to know that the lotus is my magic, don’t you?”

“…!”

“Pufu, I’m sure you remember it too.”

Of course, this situation itself made no sense to Junon.

As a regressor, he won’t be put in a situation where he could be attacked by someone he hasn’t even met before.

But now he realizes that he overlooked one thing.

‘I made a mistake.’

He is also a member of the Thambris party.

Even though he had already been warned by Erica that he would have memories of that time, he was complacent.

He was a Junon who had no choice but to blame the present self and the past self at the same time.

‘Perhaps he knows.’

If Aris says that, it must be the same as Erica. It means that she also surely knows about her past.

However, the reaction of the two shows a difference between the level of a fence and a solid castle wall.

If Erica pricked her with a needle necessary for sewing, then—

“Then, since you know what you’ve done, you don’t have to explain why I’m doing this, right?”

Aris is at the level of raising her iron and cutting her head on.

A lotus flower that is created as soon as you finish talking. Explosive noise that erupts again and again and the magic shield that blocks it.

It was an aspect of one-sided attack and thorough defense, not exchange and defense.

5 Minutes.

It was the time when Aris dealt with Junon with all her might.

‘It would be dangerous if I dragged it out longer.’

I was planning to use a lotus flower to blow it up and deal with it, then threaten it moderately.

I tried to disguise it as an accident by using the preparations I brought with me for the explosion, but annoyingly it takes too much time.

The problem is that Junon’s quick footwork and strong defense are annoying.

Even if you put in a fake midway through, she would avoid it like a rat, so even if it was a little extreme, Aris had no choice but to use a big blow.

“I didn’t want to use this because it was so noisy.”

“…!”

As if openly intending to suffocate her once and for all, Aris raised a lotus flower in the direction of her arm from where Junon was standing.

And again the sand is scorched. With firepower incomparable to what she had just used.

-Quaguagua!!!

‘At this rate, I’m sure it’s over.’

From memory, the number of shields Junon could use was two at most.

As the essence of the magic shield is focused on defense, it is effective in blocking magic, but just wearing it around your arms will not be enough.

Aris accurately dug into his weaknesses and produced a total of eight lotuses.

Detonation and debris gathering at one point. Junon, standing in the center, predicted that he would never be safe.

The school uniform will block a certain amount of firepower, so there won’t be any damage to your life, but at least it means you won’t have the strength to stand up again.

All that’s left is to warn the man who has become a mess warmed up with a lotus flower.

Aris’s footsteps slowly reached the direction of the eight pits filled with soot with her burnt smell.

And Aris had to catch this subtle sense of incongruity.

‘Wait a minute, the burnt smell is too light. That’s…’

It means that he has withstood the eight lotuses bursting with maximum firepower.

As if that guess was right, Aris had to confirm with her own eyes that there was another person standing next to her male student through the black smoke.

Perhaps the situation was more troublesome than Junon’s blocking my attack.

“I need to know your intentions in creating such a fuss at the academy, Miss Aris.”

“…Princess Ophelia?”

Not only academy students, but also graduates and border ministers speak in unison.

The grand duke’s daughter, Ophelia, is already ready to inherit her throne.

Brilliant rhetoric that seizes and mediates the nobles.

A benevolent hand that is handed out to the people regardless.

From the charisma that goes directly to the battlefield and boosts the morale of the crowd.

She was a woman who personally practiced her virtues as a monarch.

Ophelia’s actions with her sense of incongruity are based on uncertain grounds that are somewhat speculative, such as intuition.

But despite the uncertainty, even if the action is subjective and close to speculation.

Oddly enough, on the battlefield, judgments based on her sense of incongruity often hit the mark.

So it was. Ophelia felt her discomfort with her Aris and led her body.

“I need you to answer me one by one as to why the two of you were fighting in this corner.”

And this time, Ophelia’s intuition was right.

-‘Hey, hey… Over there… There are two people fighting, so please stop them…!’

There were also people who witnessed the scene just in time and came to testify.

She is a female student in the same 3rd grade.

As a result of taking into account the testimony of a female student named Hena and seeing this situation firsthand, Ophelia was able to draw a conclusion right away.

At first glance, one side launched an attack unilaterally, so it must be the traces of a downward slash.

She intended to hand over the harsh punishment and pass it on to Goden. However.

“It’s not like that. It’s just a minor trouble.”

“…Yes?”

For someone, Ophelia’s intuition and Hena’s testimony had to go wrong this time.

***

“Then… I’m leaving.”

Aris bows her head to say hello, and Ophelia gives her a small nod of her head once.

Junon touched Aris’ nerves with her mouth and proved that it was something that happened because her emotions were somewhat intensified.

However, that testimony is questionable to anyone.

‘That bastard, what’s up with you?’

Aris, who was on her way, bit her fingernails.

The appearance of Ophelia completely ruined the plan to warn Junon in advance.

Even the princess and Goden are childhood friends who exchange all sorts of information.

If this story gets to Goden’s ears, she might be kicked out of the party in Thembris.

For Aris, Junon’s testimony was on the verge of turning everything into a wild twist.

She racked her brains trying to figure out how to excuse herself, but in the meantime.

-‘It’s not like that. It’s just a minor trouble.’

Junon intervened and erased what had just happened.

Ophelia seemed suspicious at first and wanted to ask Junon about her truth, but she seemed to find it difficult to answer easily.

Neither side had plausible physical evidence left, and both sides had something to hide.

Perhaps, as with Aris, it is related to her past memories, so it will be difficult to answer easily.

‘I have no choice but to commit to the next one.’

Aris, who was embarrassed by the appearance of Princess Ophelia, could not move hastily any more.

Aris withdrew like that, and only the two of her were left there.

“Since there is no perpetrator now, how about being honest?”

“What do you mean?”

“Acrid smell as if something has been burned from the heat and scorched marks all over the place. Even if you compare only cancer, you are more affected than Miss Aris. Isn’t it?”

Since she intends to punish Aris appropriately, Ophelia said she should not think of retaliation and that she would answer honestly.

But Junon had no intention of answering the truth.

“It’s just because I’m weaker. I started the fight first.”

“Things like this keep happening on campus. I’m personally disciplining them as a leader, so you have to be honest.”

“It was not a situation that the Princess should be concerned about. I am not a victim.”

Really…?

I can’t do that…?

I don’t know if there were once or twice that Ophelia caught such a grunt on her own in school, but that’s absolutely not the case.

Since the day I found out that professors were neglecting and disposing of cotton bats, I have uncovered countless truths.

Thanks to that, it is now possible to easily distinguish perpetrators from victims.

Still, it doesn’t make sense to say Junon wasn’t the victim. Even a student named Hena hurriedly ran up to her and told her to save him, so she thought that this would be a victim she couldn’t even gamble.

But this is just her subjective sense of incongruity. First of all, intuition is difficult to refute because it is based on uncertainty.

Henna’s testimony is also not very accurate because, in a way, it is all about asking her to stop fighting.

In other words, it was a strange situation in which there was no clear physical evidence if the party denied it.

“Is it okay if I stop going? I want to wash up quickly because it looks like this.”

“I see… Go inside.”

Ophelia was in a bewildered mood, but she had no choice but to let Junon go. First of all, it’s just a heart attack.

Ophelia watches the scorched sand in the aftermath of the battle behind Junon, who is moving away.

Assuming the course of the battle with the evidence captured fiercely through the eyes of the commanding officer who seizes the expedition, it is difficult to see that they fought with equal strength.

That’s why it’s even more surprising.

“Definitely different.”

Ophelia’s hand touches the sand that has been burnt and the sand that has not.

Especially that one that’s three steps away. I am surprised once more by that trace.

“No matter how you look at it… It probably wasn’t strong enough to handle.”

As if the traces of explosions that had exploded several times since the first surprise attack could not pass a certain wall, the sand inside and outside the boundary had a different texture.

As if a barrier was erected to block it.

Ophelia is looking at a place where the traces are especially prominent.

A place that spreads out in eight directions and only the topography in the middle remains alive.

Finally, it was the location where Junon stopped the Eight Lotuses.

“How… Did they catch everything correctly?”

When Ophelia had just arrived, it was too late to help Junon.

Only two.

I had no choice but to help Junon get a little less hurt by intercepting only two out of eight.

Even so, the direction of the explosion digging inward from eight directions was cleanly cut.

This is absolutely impossible without a more detailed calculation of the coordinates and power to defend.

In other words, it is safe to say that Junon took all of Aris’ firepower by himself. No more, no less, by calculating the exact power.

“How sophisticated…”

I can say from Ophelia’s experience that if this battle continued, there was no guarantee that either side would emerge victorious.

***

The next day, in Professor Meuniher’s office, scratching his insides broke out.

“What do you mean?”

“It is as I said.”

“So you’re asking what the hell is that sh*t-eating sound!”

The one who came to Professor Meuniher’s office was none other than Junon, handing out a letter of resignation.

‘I’ll disappear right in front of your eyes as you wish.’